US Congress to Cut Budget for Marines' Transfer From Okinawa to Guam

* Text sent from Martha Duenas on Dec. 19, 2010

Japan Today
US Congress to Cut Budget for Marines' Transfer From Okinawa to Guam
Saturday, December 18, 2010


Washington - The U.S. Congress has reached an agreement to sharply slash the fiscal 2011 budget for transferring the Marine Corps’ troops from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam, congressional sources said Thursday.


The administration of President Barack Obama had proposed about $452 million (38 billion yen) in transfer costs for that fiscal year starting on Oct 1, 2010.


Congress has agreed to cut the amount by about 70% to some $132 million due to a delay in work to develop infrastructure on Guam, the sources said.


The Defense Department has already acknowledged that the transfer of the Marines from Okinawa to Guam could be delayed beyond the current target of 2014 because of a shortage of water, sewage and electric power facilities on Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.


One of the sources said that Congress has come to the conclusion that the budget for the transfer of the Marines could not be enforced due to a delay in infrastructure development work on Guam even if the legislature approved the administration’s budget proposal.

The Marines’ planned move to Guam is deeply linked with the relocation of the Marines’ Futenma air station from a densely populated quarter in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to a less populated coastal area in Nago, also Okinawa.